Rethinking Cranberries

My mom had a run-in with cranberry sauce early in her immigrant life. 

It was 1963 and my father was a pathology resident in Cleveland.  The hospital had invited all the foreign doctors, who stuck to the same social circle, to spend Thanksgiving with a host family. My mom urged my father to accept the invitation, eager to glimpse the inside of an American home after living in the U.S. for a year.  In exchange, the hospital passed along the name and address of a local family.   

I like to picture my parents stepping out of their black VW bug.  My mom in a carefully pressed sari with her long hair tucked into a bun.  My father in neutral colored suit. The front buttons properly fastened.  (The following year, they shared Thanksgiving with another young Indian couple.  My mom insisted that Mr. Mennon accept the turkey offered by his employer and both wives basted and roasted it under the wing of Good Housekeeping Cookbook.  Years later, that cookbook still rests on my mom's kitchen shelf.) 

Not surprisingly, their most memorable moment with the host family took place at the dinner table. (Thanksgiving is centered around food, after all!)  As the meal was being plated, the grandmother of the house commented on my mother's slender build and insisted that she be given an extra large serving of turkey.  Before handing my mom her food, the hostess asked if she wanted cranberry sauce.  My mom nodded politely, thinking that it was a kind of savory chilly sauce given its reddish color. The meat turned out to be bland, to my mother's great horror, but worse yet, the burgundy sauce was sweet!  The sweet-savory combination was totally foreign to her palate. She still recalls how she had to fight the nausea that begun bubbling up her throat. Unfortunately, there was no escaping the huge chunk of cranberry smothered poultry still resting on her plate.   

My mom included cranberry sauce off and on at our Thanksgiving celebrations, but none of us ever touched it.  After eating Kerala dishes day in and day out, we followed the sweet with sweet, savory with savory flavor edict.  I admit that I have never bothered to include cranberries when hosting Thanksgiving. But lately I've been rethinking their role in the fall celebration.  

CRANBERRY WALNUT UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

(from Epicurious.com)

TIPS:

- I love the warm taste of cinnamon so I added 1/2 teaspoon to the dry ingredients.

- It's best to invert this cake directly onto the serving dish because it has a delicate crumb, despite its rustic appearance. If you plan to move it more than once, add a tiny layer of oil to the surface of the wire rack or dish before you lay it down. 

INGREDIENTS

For topping:

• 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 3/4 cups fresh or frozen cranberries (7 ounces; do not thaw if frozen)
• 3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (3 ounces), toasted

For cake:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk

INSTRUCTIONS

Make topping:
Melt butter in skillet over moderate heat, then swirl to coat bottom and side of skillet and stir in brown sugar. Simmer, stirring, until sugar is dissolved, 1 to 2 minutes, then sprinkle cranberries and walnuts evenly over butter mixture and remove from heat.

Make cake:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until light and fluffy, 4 to 6 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture alternately in batches with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing until just combined. (Do not overmix.)

Bake cake:
Heat topping in skillet over moderately high heat until it starts to bubble, then gently spoon batter over topping and spread evenly. Quickly transfer to oven; bake until cake is golden brown and a wooden skewer comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a rack 15 minutes. Run a thin knife around inside edge of pan, then invert a serving plate over pan and invert cake onto plate. Cool completely on plate on rack, 1 hour. Serve cake at room temperature.